In The Scheme Of Things: Alternative Thinking on the Practice of Architecture [Hardcover]

Thomas R. Fisher Fisher (Author), Thomas R. Fisher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 21, 2000

One of the field’s most innovative thinkers reconsiders the purpose and practice of architecture. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, architecture is in a state of crisis. Numbed by an ugly and shoddily constructed built environment and outraged by the cost of high-profile design projects, the public has become disinterested in and contemptuous of architecture as both a profession and an art. At the same time, some of our most creative designers have isolated themselves from the tastes and needs of mainstream society, reflecting a similar malaise found in design and architecture schools around the country. In this troubling climate, Thomas R. Fisher—who challenged architects as editorial director of Progressive Architecture, becoming recognized as one of the field’s most original thinkers—contends that the purpose and prospects of architectural practice must be reconsidered and reenergized. In the Scheme of Things looks at architecture’s need to respond creatively and meaningfully to the extraordinary changes affecting the profession now, changes that include the global economy, the advent of computer-aided design, and the growing disconnection between design schools, architectural practice, and the public.

In each of the twelve essays that comprise this timely volume, Fisher addresses issues of vital concern to architects and students, offering hard-hitting criticism and proposing innovative and practical ideas for reform at the level of both the individual practitioner and the profession as a whole. Through his thoughtful and nuanced consideration of architecture’s ideological foundations and its relationship to ecology, politics, and technology, as well as his subtle understanding of the architect’s interior life, Fisher challenges the demoralized design community to recapture its historical role as steward and visionary of the public realm.

Thomas R. Fisher is dean of the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota and coeditor of Architectural Research Quarterly. His essays have appeared in Design Quarterly, Architectural Record, and other leading journals.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The former editor of Progressive Architecture, now dean of the University of Minnesota College of Architecture, muses on the troubled state of contemporary architectural practice. In 12 loosely related essays, Fisher, long recognized as one of the profession's keenest critics, warns architects that they risk an increasingly marginalized role within the building industry if they continue business as usual. His sweeping vision calls for reforming professional education, revitalizing relationships among colleagues and with clients, and redefining the design process itself. This call to arms, however, is sounded on a muted instrument. These erudite and elegantly argued essays may appeal to an academic audience but are not likely to galvanize an entire profession. Still, this is a timely and thought-provoking addition to professional and academic collections.
-David Solt sz, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Those who think that present-day architecture is ‘numbed by an ugly and shoddily constructed built environment’ are encouraged to read Thomas R. Fisher’s In the Scheme of Things from the University of Minnesota Press. Twelve essays chart vital concerns in ecology, politics, and technology and reassess the way architects need to think of themselves, concluding that instead of demoralised, cubicle-based plan-mazufacturers, they should reinvent themselves as stewards and visionaries of the public realm. Often provocative, this book is full of ideas that, if implemented, might vastly improve the way we live now, judging from the author’s previous essays.”  —The Art Newspaper

“The forms of architectural practice and the education of architects are all too rarely scrutinized. This book seeks to address the oversight. Modest, carefully written, and refreshingly jargon-free, it connects those issues and considers them primarily in the context of North America to present a claim that architecture is in a state of crisis.” —Azure

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press; 1 edition (January 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816636532
• ISBN-13: 978-0816636532
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,662,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Good Life and Architecture, March 10, 2001

By 

Raymond W. Gastil (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In The Scheme Of Things: Alternative Thinking on the Practice of Architecture (Hardcover)

This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of architectural education and practice. The author, Thomas R. Fisher, now Dean of University of Minnesota's College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, goes right to the point of what is wrong with architecture today, and offers both questions for debate and answers he can support.

Always an original thinker about architecture, and well-known for his bold opinions as editor of what was the field's most important professional magazine, the now defunct Progressive Architecture, Fisher is very clear on the discipline's one big idea: "...all good architecture puts forward a proposition, whether the designer is aware of it or not, about the good life, about how we should live and what we should live for." As he would be the first to admit, many architects lose sight of this proposition, and from the general public's perspective, if architecture is supposed to be about making life better, most architects have a funny way of showing it.

Fisher is clear on what has to be done. Architecture, in its education, internships, and practice has to reconnect to what he calls a comprehensible "public fiction" of what design can do for buildings, places, and cities. He recognizes architects Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as ur-designers Charles and Ray Eames, and architectural historian Vincent Scully, as cogent, forceful advocates of strong "fictions" of how design could make life better, whether by integrating technology, by connecting to the earth and place, or by unprecedented seeing patterns and connections, can shape a world where people can live, work, and play in environments that are both functional and meaningful. Fisher calls the organizing principles of these designers' work "fictions" because declarations that "the house is a machine to live in," for example, is by no means an absolute truth, but it is a vision that yielded decades of extraordinary environments. To me, the term "narrative" or "vision," as tired as those words are, might better make the point, since "fiction" can hold the stigma of deliberate deception.

In the Scheme of Things outlines the philosophical and historical basis for past "fictions," as well as ones to come, leaning heavily on the Pragmatist work of John Dewey, and as with the recent "Pragmatist Imagination" conference at the Museum of Modern Art, he implies that this kind of enlightened utilitarianism remains the firmest ground for a discipline that has lost its way. To Fisher, if it is to find its way back, architecture will have to take communicating with the general public much more seriously, make clear that design is about solving problems, not an application of taste from a historical or avant-garde catalogue, and have to reconnect education and practice.

He is too cavalier in his dismissal of formalism-no matter how many times you say architecture is research and problem-solving, it is also about the way things look, and image and form are essential to its "problems." But his point is vital - architects need to be involved in the full life cycle of the built environment, at the beginning stage (not pushed aside while the developers and planners cut the deal), and even after construction into post-occupancy studies. In addition, he calls for an education that recognizes a macro sense of "design" that transcends the specific work of building design, and which would enable an architect to attack a problem from the most conceptual - much as Rem Koolhaas is now doing for Prada and other companies, re-conceptualizing (or at least appearing to), their entire approach. He may be right, it is certainly exciting for educators or practitioners to retool themselves as this kind of consultant. On the other hand, he may be playing into the egregious business school myth that all management and consulting skills (in this case design skills) can be applied to all businesses - which sometimes works for a company selling off its assets, but very rarely results in a better product or anything associated with an advanced notion of the good life.

In short, Fisher looks at the ecology of architecture, and without belaboring the metaphor, finds in it an unhealthy set of monocultures, not even in productive juxtaposition with one another. For some, his answers may not have enough "friction" (or enough pictures - there are none in this volume, a daring but risky choice for a book on this topic). Indeed, if there is any criticism to be made of Fisher and his editors (Engine Books, Inc., and the publisher, University of Minnesota Press), it is that he is such a clear writer, and so smoothly edited, that the reader can't always get a grip on just how challenging are his points of view, and how radical they really are for the academy and the profession.

In addition, the book may ultimately be too abstract to fully connect to the students, architects, and public that it needs to. Fisher strives to be admirably independent architecture's celebrity culture, which he sees as a bad hangover from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts tradition, yet at the same time it is "stars" who are the greatest advocates, today, of sustaining a "public fiction" for architecture - with Andres Duany and his New Urbanism movement calling for stability and order and safe streets in one corner and Rem Koolhaas and his acolytes calling for "metropolitan" excitement, change, and opportunity in the other. Perhaps Fisher believes that neither one has a fiction that is good enough to report on at length, or that they are so over-reported as personalities that it is time to focus on the real content of the debate (he does cite Duany briefly). Fine, he is intellectually right, but in the battle for the hearts and minds of architecture, the star system will be with us well into the new century - dealing with it is, yet again, a design problem, and Fisher may well find a way.